THE MATERIAL WORLD Extends at Dixon Place Thru 8/2

By popular demand, the Dixon Place HOT! Festival commission, THE MATERIAL WORLD, by Dan Fishback has been extended for two performances on August 1 & 2 at 8PM. The breakout show opened immediately to sold out crowds and benefitted greatly by active social media support even before the first reviews were published. The show has been a must-see not only for the downtown experimental theater community but has attracted interest from established Broadway producers as well artistic directors from several prestigious regional theaters. Extension date info is as follows:

EXTENDED to August 1 & 2!
Dixon Place and Brooklyn Arts Exchange present
The World Premiere of Dan Fishback’s
THE MATERIAL WORLD
Music, lyrics, and book by Dan Fishback
Directed by Stephen Brackett
Starring Cole Escola, Eleanor Reissa, Molly Pope, Amy Gironda, Megan Stern, Lisa Clair, Leo Schaff

Wednesday August 1 & Thursday August 2 @ 8PM
Dixon Place / 161A Chrystie Street / New York, NY 10002
Tickets: Advance online: $15 GA / $12 students-seniors / $18 at door
www.dixonplace.org
212-219-0736

THE MATERIAL WORLD

The Material World features an anachronistic cast of neurotic Jews, all trying to save the planet. Gittel Fenster (Megan Stern), a 12-year-old radical socialist, studies Marxism to prepare for global anti-capitalist revolt, while gay nerd Ian Fleishman (Escola) tests the revolutionary power of Facebook, and the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna (Amy Gironda) mediates on secret Kabbalistic codes to fix a broken universe. The characters grapple with their lofty ambitions and their capacity for failure, to an eclectic score of bouncy electro dance pop, ramshackle twee-folk and classic Tin Pan Alley. And unlike other pop musicals about Madonna and socialism, this play has scenes in Yiddish. The second installment of “The Ian Fleishman Trilogy,” and a sequel to the 2009 erotic Chanukah comedy You Will Experience Silence, The Material World continues Fishback’s exploration of Jewish political neurosis.

This soulful musical brings surprising tenderness, humor, and ferocious diva realness to the most depressing political realities.

DAN FISHBACK (Writer) The Material World is Fishback’s third collaboration with director Stephen Brackett at Dixon Place, following thirtynothing (2011) and You Will Experience Silence (2009). Previous works include No Direction Homo (P.S. 122, 2006), Please Let Me Love You (Dixon Place, 2006), Waiting for Barbara (Galapagos Art Space, 2006), and boi with an i (Collective: Unconscious, 2004). Also a performing songwriter, Fishback began his music career in the East Village's anti-folk scene. His band, Cheese On Bread, has toured Europe and North America in support of their two full-length albums, "Maybe Maybe Maybe Baby" (2004) and "The Search for Colonel Mustard" (2007), the latter of which was re-issued in Japan in 2010 on Moor Works Records. As a solo artist, Fishback has released several recordings, including "Sweet Chastity" (2005, produced by César Alvarez of The Lisps), and his latest, "The Mammal Years" (2012). Fishback received the Franklin Furnace Fund grant in 2010 and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists in 2007. He is a resident artist at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics at NYU (2012), and at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2010-2012).

Stephen Brackett (Director) With Dan Fishback: thirtynothing and You Will Experience Silence (Dixon Place). NYC credits include: Anton Dudley’s The Empty Ocean (Harold Clurman Lab), Bekah Brunstetter’s Nothing is the End of the World (Waterwell/PPAS), Chad Beckim’s After (Partial Comfort Productions), Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), The Tenant (Woodshed Collective), Too Much Too Soon (Lesser America), political strategist and humanitarian David Mixner’s From the Front Porch (Dixon Place), Nick Jones and Rachel Shukert’s The Sporting Life (Studio 42), Dylan Dawson’s Cinemediocracy (Ars Nova), Sam Forman and Eric Davis’ F#@king Up Everything (NYMF), Bixby Elliot’s PN1923.45LS01 Volume 2 (FringeNY), Whore and The Ones That Flutter (Summer Play Festival), and Kilroy Was Here: A Styx Rock Opera (Williamstown). Assistant Director: Passing Strange (The Public and Belasco Theaters). Upcoming: Micheline Auger’s American River and The Trouble With Doug at TheatreWorks.